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The GTA franchise has had a major impact on the industry, and has been one of the most successful game series of all-time. The games have collectively garnered generally positive reviews and have an excellent reputation within the community.
The GTA franchise was instrumental in making Rockstar Games a household name and solidified their position on top of the Triple-A games industry. There are only a handful of games that occupy the same rarified air of the GTA.
However, players can often end up with game fatigue when playing for too long. In case players are looking for more games that can offer much of the same and then some, then these are the five perfect alternatives to the GTA franchise.
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Top 5 GTA Alternatives players should try
1) Yakuza
The Yakuza franchise is one steeped in history and has resulted in some of the best action games you can play today. While the open-world doesn't operate in the Yakuza franchise as GTA, the game has plenty of more things to offer.
Yakuza features what could be considered the most in-depth combat system ever seen in games of this particular genre. The protagonist has various martial arts styles that they can deploy during the heat of combat to wondrously satisfying degrees.
From lightning-fast kung-fu to the lumbering and powerful brawler style, the game encourages you to try different moves.
What truly puts the franchise over is its captivating storytelling. Yakuza tells amazingly cinematic stories with a touch of self-aware light-heartedness that comes off as more charming than not.
2) Sleeping Dogs
Sleeping Dogs takes a lot of inspiration from a lot of games like GTA, Yakuza, and the Batman Arkham franchise. However, the result is a wholly original game that never feels derivative of other games in similar genres such as GTA.
The game puts players in control of Wei Shen, an undercover policeman deeply embedded in the Triads. As Wei, players will take part in an endlessly entertaining police drama that is reminiscent of the best of Hong Kong action cinema.
Sleeping Dogs' greatest selling point comes in the form of its combat system that feels satisfyingly brutal and stylish. Wei's martial arts move-set mixed with control schemes similar to the Arkham franchise results in one of the most entertaining combat systems in the open-world genre.
The combat is what truly gives it the upper-hand on the GTA franchise. If players are looking for rewarding and entertaining combat, then Sleeping Dogs is their best bet.
3) Watch Dogs 2
Watch Dogs, by itself, was not the best start to a franchise by Ubisoft, which wasn't entirely the game's fault, as a massive graphical downgrade also contributed to its hostile reception.
However, the game did have a fair number of original ideas that piqued the audience's interest. Ubisoft capitalized on that and corrected the errors of the original Watch Dogs to deliver a home run with Watch Dogs 2.
Watch Dogs 2 was a much more light-hearted affair and focused more on simply having more 'fun' with gameplay than being concerned with a decidedly cliched plotline surrounding shadow organizations and conspiracies.
The game throws everything at the wall in the hopes of something to stick, and surprisingly, most things do. One of the most underrated titles of the past decade, Watch Dogs 2 deserves more love from the fanbase.
4) Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands
Before players dismiss the idea of Ghost Recon entirely ever being an alternative for GTA, hear us out. Sometimes, all it takes to make a game feel that much better is the presence of friends.
Ghost Recon: Wildlands is experienced best when playing with friends in co-op mode. Up to four friends can join in on a session and complete various missions together. While it won't be replacing GTA anytime soon in terms of story or the single-player experience, wouldn't everyone love if their friends could've also joined in as one of the three protagonists in GTA 5?
Ghost Recon is at its best when you and your friends are either looking to execute a well-thought-out plan, or throwing caution to the wind and go in all guns blazing. Ghost Recon: Wildlands is a lot of fun when played the correct way, and does not deserve the shadowy corner it occupies in the gaming community currently.
5) Mafia II
A personal favourite of fans who grew up loving gangster movies from directors such as Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, and Francis Ford Coppola. Mafia II attempts to pay homage and provide players with a similarly captivating story and brilliant world-building.
While Mafia III strayed from the beaten path ever so slightly, Mafia II is arguably the best game in the trilogy. The open-world doesn't function in the same way as the GTA franchise, and feels far more linear, as it is in service of the story.
The story is genuinely at the hear of the Mafia II experience and is a brilliant one at that. One of the best-written stories in all of gaming, Mafia II will have players wholly invested in the journey of Vito and Joe as they rise up the ranks of the Italian Mafia.
